Brain Bubbles and Task Cards

Brain Bubble Station

The Brain Bubble Station is one of the choices available to students who finish work early.  Located on a small table with a couple of chairs, the students will find a bucket or two of brain bubbles and recording notebooks.

Pictures from Apple Girl Amber and Teaching in Flip Flops and Mrs. Gold's Class and Learning is a Hoot

What are Brain Bubbles?

Brain bubbles are clear plastic containers that you usually see inside a gumball machine with little toys/trinkets.  However, inside these capsules called "Brain Bubbles" ...is a task card.  Each Brain Bubble is numbered and color coded if you wish to separate skill sets.

The student opens up a brain bubble and records the following things on the brain bubble recording sheet notebook provided next to the bucket. 

• number/color of brain bubble chosen
• task card question or prompt
• student response

The recording sheet helps to keep track of which brain bubbles the student has already accomplished, as well as keeping a record to check the answers.  A free printable can be found here at Learning is a Hoot.  Once the student has successfully completed 18 brain bubbles they are rewarded a class clam.

What are Task Cards?

Task cards are a great way for students to work independently by being prompted with a set of activities to complete or questions to answer.  You could make your own to go along with your exact curriculum, or you can purchase sets from Mailbox or other places...even find freebies offed by other teachers who have created them.  There are so many resources to choose from and many of them free.  Check out these Pinterest pages for  Task Cards or Brain Bubbles for tons great ideas.

 *Some task cards review a very specific skill set, so I choose to keep them together instead of put them individually into a brain bubble.  This way I can review with the kids easily by picking up the set off the hook, instead of searching through lots of bubbles to find what I am looking for...I love the game Scoot (see below)  I hole punch the cards in the upper corner and put them together on a binder ring.  

These task card sets hang on a command hook inside the brain bubble bucket, and the students record them the same way as brain bubbles.  One task card set as equal to 18 brain bubbles.  One set of task cards earns one class clam.

Using Task Cards for Review Game

Another FUN way these task card sets can be used is to play a great class review game called SCOOT. One task card is placed on each student desk and the students are given recording sheets (or a regular sheet of paper that the student numbers.)  The students start out by sitting at their own desk and answering the task card on their desk and filling in their recording sheet.  Every 1-3 minutes (time depends on the review cards) a signal is sounded and the students “scoot” to the next desk with their recording sheet to answer a new task card.  Kids have so much fun reviewing!

Students who finish early

Cute Ocean Themed Finished Early Octopus from CampCrawford on Shutterfly

One of the most commonly asked questions teachers hear in the classroom is, "What do I do now?"  With this system, the students who finish early are able to look up at the Finished Early condiments board to easily find the answer.

These great visual aids can be found at Sparklebox and Teach-a Roo 

Here is how it works:  All students start out each week with their names listed under pickles.  If the student doesn't turn in an assignment, their name is moved under the ketchup and the assignment needed is listed under mustard.  If these students finish early, then they “must do” that assignment to “catch up”.  If the student is finished early and is still listed under the pickle, then they “may do” any one of the following independent work.

• Read independently, take AR test, visit the library
• Write in Student Writing Journal
• Finished Early Binder 
• Task Card/Brain Bubbles Bucket 
• Complete Classroom Boggle game of the week

 

  This cute schedule card is from The First Grade Parade

Students are rewarded for accomplishing these extra “May do” goals by earning class clams to be redeemed at our Class Buried Treasure for Reward Coupons each Friday. (see my post about that HERE)

These are the things that earns 1 Class Clam:

• 1 completed Boggle Game Recording Sheet
• 5 completed pages in finished early binder
• Completed recording sheet for a Task Card Set
• Completed recording sheet for Brain Bubbles
• Exceeding their weekly AR points goal
• 5 extra (not assigned) journal entries